Introducing: The Yoruba nation
Who are they, what are they like, and where do they come from?
Who are they?
The Yoruba are an ethnic group, mainly inhabiting what is today known as south-western Nigeria. Significant populations also exist in neighboring countries, such as Togo, Ghana, and the Benin republic, as well as a small but growing establishment in the Americas. With a total population estimated at over 40 million, they are one of the largest ethnic groups, not only in Nigeria, but in all of Africa as well.
Historically speaking, they have always been, and continue to be, one of the most highly urbanized groups in Africa, with Lagos, the modern cultural and economic hub of the nation, also considered one of the largest urban centers on the continent. Therefore, their historical influence on West Africa's development is difficult to over stat, and more so, on the development of other regions, even outside Africa, such as South America, and the Caribbean.
What are they like?
Demographics and Religion
As I stated earlier, the Yoruba constitute a significant percentage of the total population of Nigeria, about 15.5-21% to be exact, with over 50% of this population following the Christian faith, and another quarter being of Islamic persuasion. The remainder engage in various Indigenous beliefs and cultic practices, centered around the veneration of a chief deity known colloquially as Olodumare or, more popularly, Olorun, using sacrifices, sacred shrines, and incantations to powerful intermediary spirits called Orisa.
These are primal forces whose identity and purpose are linked to various natural phenomena in order to explain and understand them, a common process in other ancient cultures and religions around the world. The most prominent and well known of these include Ogun, god of Iron and Warfare, Sango, an ancient former King of Oyo turned god of thunder and lightning, and even Osun, wife of Sango, and goddess of the river Osun, close to Ile Ife, the traditional birthplace of the Yoruba. Even Oduduwa, the illustrious progenitor of the nation, is considered a deity by modern followers of the traditional faith.
Like many other groups in Nigeria, they are mostly concentrated into numerous rural communities, with a moderate but rapidly growing urban population. It is important to note that their urban character is not an invention of colonization or the modern era, as scholars have often described them as historically being the most urbanized peoples of South-Saharan Africa, even possessing an urbanization rate on par with the United States in the early and middle 20th century. Regardless, like in most other African societies, the Yoruba still value patrilineal descent, and men are regarded as the head of the house, family, and clan.
Occupations
Much of the Yoruba population is still engaged in traditional professions such as agriculture and commerce, professions split along gender lines, with the men performing most physically tasking labor such as agriculture, blacksmithing, hunting, artisanship, and construction, farming not only food crops such as yams, maize, plantains (Dodo), and beans (Ewa), staples of the Yoruba diet, but also commercially viable produce such as cocoa and groundnuts
This produce is then sold by the women in open air markets in town centers. The Yoruba market system is traditionally highly complex and developed, with women occupying the upper levels of its organization, and an individualโs social status being dependent on her status within the market system, rather than on that of her husband or father. Alternatively, women also serve a position in homemaking and child-rearin
With the coming of modernization, rapid urbanization and industrialization, several more modern professions in fields such as Medicine, IT, Finance, Education and Manufacturing have been opened to the populace, levelling the playing field between the sexes, and necessitating an evolution in gender relations.
Culture
Over the years, the Yoruba have also acquired a reputation for parties and celebrations, colloquially known as Owambe. This is an observation with some truth in it, as evidenced by their tendency to organize several lavish ceremonies for numerous occasions such as Weddings, Dedications, Naming ceremonies, and even Funerals
This perception is attested to by the sheer number of traditional festivals they engage in very year, the most popular of these being the Eyo festival native to Lagos state, Ojude Oba, held in the city of Ijebu Ode, and the Osun Osogbo festival celebrating one of the Yorubasโ most iconic deities. Even historically, the ancient Bere festival, which would last for years, could be seen as contributing to this reputation.
Politics and Influence
The Yorubasโ high population share has contributed greatly to its degree of cultural, economic, and political influence on the country. For example, the Yoruba have contributed a total of 4 out of 12 listed Heads of the Nigerian state, as well as several political thought leaders, such as Chief Olรบแนฃแบนฬgun แปbรกsanjแปฬ, who would serve twice, first as the military premier from 1976-1979, and again as the first democratically elected president of the 4th republic from 1999-2007.
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Between Obasanjoโs two regimes, during the period known as the Crisis of the third Republic, wealthy business Tycoon Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, popularly abbreviated as M.K.O Abiola, would win the 1993 Nigerian presidential elections, then considered the freest and fairest in the countryโs history. This victory would be short-lived however, as he would shortly be imprisoned in the confusion caused by the unexpected annulment of the election results, and replaced by Chief Ernest Shonekan, who served as interim head of state from the 26th of August to the 17th of November of the same year.
Earlier leaders include Herbert Macaulay, who is widely considered to be the father of the Nigerian Nationalist movement, Chief Bode Thomas, a man as influential as Macauley, and Chief แปbafแบนฬmi Awรณlแปฬwแปฬ, who would carry on Macaulayโs torch and serve as one of the key figures involved in Nigeriaโs independence, consequentially making him one of its founding fathers.
Other influential figures to consider would be the Archbishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, brother to our own Reverend Samuel Johnson, whose illustrious and extensive career would include many firsts for both Nigeria and Africa. In addition to being the first African Bishop of the Anglican church, he would also be instrumental in producing the first translation of the Bible into a West African language, the illustrious Bibeli Mimแป, the original copy of which can still be found on display in the modern coastal town of Badagry.
Worth also noting is that the first indigenous newspaper ever published in Nigeria would be the Iwe Irohin, written in the Egba dialect for the Yoruba of the Abeokuta metropolis.
Following the trend of pioneering in various fields of achievement, influential figures such as Professor Wแปlรฉ แนขรณyรญinkรก and musical Legend Fela Ransome Kuti would both attract international acclaim for their achievements in the artistic fields of literature and music. The former would go on to receive a Nobel Literature prize, the first South-Saharan African blessed with such an honor, and the later would lay the basis for the Afrobeat genre of music, popular in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas.
Both figures were important advocates for the independence movement, and would also develop reputations for being exceptionally critical of the then still burgeoning government of the new Nigerian state.
Moving forward, the previously mentioned coastal Megalopolis of Lagos, which served as the capital of the country from its independence in 1960, until its replacement by the newly constructed capital at Abuja in 1991, nonetheless continues to serve as the economic and cultural hub of the country.
It likely owes this status to its strategically advantageous location on the West African coast, affording it most of the maritime trade and traffic both across the Atlantic Ocean, and between the Northern and Southern half of the continent, making it a nexus of cultural influences both to and from around the globe. As a result, the inhabitants of the city are usually at the forefront of cultural trends, be it in Fashion, cuisine, music, or art, and serve as a standard against which the rest of the countryโs urban population is measured by these metrics.
Language
The modern Yoruba language is the most prominent and widely spoken member of the Yoruboid mega-group of languages, amongst which are also included the Igala, Itsekiri and Edekiri languages. The Yoruboid languages are also a part of the Benue-Congo branch of the larger Niger-Congo A language family, which is in turn a subdivision of the Bantu language Family, which is almost unanimous with the various peoples of South-Saharan Africa.
Like many other African languages such as Zulu, it is a tonal language, which means that the intonation and pitch of a single syllable can indicate a variety of meanings.
For example, the word Ogun, while spelt similarly each time, can convey many different meanings, and refer to different and even unrelated concepts and objects, all depending on what emphasis the speaker lays on each syllable. This results in this word having up to 11 different meanings! Therefore, รgรบn, can refer to the Yoruba god of Iron-smelting, Warfare, and Politics, while Ogun, refers to the federal unit within the Nigerian state.
The Yoruba language has no gendered use cases, but careful consideration is always taken to add the prefix โE โ(Eh) to any verb, pronoun or greeting, to denote the seniority of the subject to whom the speaker is referring. As an example, the simple greeting โKaaroโ (Good morning) would be acceptable when addressed towards a peer or junior, but the modified โEkaaroโ, would be more apt for a senior.
Although it is written in the Roman alphabetic tradition, a prominent adaptation to this foreign influence is the addition of several accents, as demonstrated earlier, to denote intonation, and differentiate between similarly spelt, but different words.
Naturally, there are almost as many native speakers of the Yoruba language as there are members of the ethnic group, although the doubly disruptive processes of colonization and globalization have rendered the language almost obsolete outside of its traditional and local context.
This has resulted in younger generations facing increasing difficulty and lack of interest in learning their mother tongue, in favor of more commonly spoken languages like English. These recent developments place the language at mild risk of extinction, if more efforts are not taken to limit this trend.
The many native speakers are subdivided into different dialects depending on geographical location and distribution. Within Nigeria alone there are at least 20 different dialects, each synonymous with the historical polities which pioneered their use. Other dialects exist outside Nigeria, chiefly amongst the Yoruba populations native to ย the countries of Togo and the Benin republic, and even the Ga people of Ghana.
Also, enclaves within American countries such as the as the Candomblรฉ religious traditions of Afro-Brazilians, utilize a dialect which substitutes the โSโ in written Yoruba for โX โ. The Santerรญa and Lucumรญ liturgical languages of Afro-Descendent communities in the Caribbean, and North America respectively, are also related.
Where do they come from?
Etymology and Nomenclature
The word โYorubaโ is somewhat an invention of the modern age, whose roots can be traced back to the earliest Christian missionaries in the region, and their attempts to categorize all the similar ethnolinguistic groups which inhabited the region of the Bight of Benin.
Their use of the term was itself an adoption from the Hausa-Fulani polities of northern Nigeria, who constantly waged wars of conquest and Islamization against the population of the south. Their moniker for their erstwhile infidel enemies, โYouribba,โ was used specifically in reference to the inhabitants of the Oyo empire, their primary rival for dominance of the region.
It would eventually come to refer to all peoples within the region, but only truly achieved popular usage in the latter half of the 19th century, as part of a greater movement to forge a common ethnic identity during the internecine civil wars of the late 19th and early 20th century, in which the militaristic polity of Ibadan would attempt to re-unify the country, in the wake of the Oyo empireโs disintegration.
The earliest mention of the Yoruba in any historical literary source can be attributed to the 17th century Arabic manuscript, the Miโrฤj al-แนขuโลซd, authored by the Malian Islamic scholar Ahmed Baba Al-Timbuktu. While chiefly chronicling the histories of the various Sudano-Sahelian states which occupied the upper Niger region of West Africa, and with which the Oyo empire itself traded with extensively, it does contain a brief mention of a nation of infidel peoples it refers to as the โBaribaโ.
Other early appearances in the literary historical record include the various references in the journals of European explorers documenting their interactions with the peoples of the southern West-African coast, chiefly the Fon people of the Dahomey kingdom, speaking of their, at the time, imperial over lords.
Others include the Benin kingdom, who themselves shared a common cultural, religious, and historical origin with the Yoruba. They all spoke of a calvary-based power of considerable size occupying the vast savannah grasslands to their north, and were most likely referring to the iconic Oyo empire, which would have achieved the height of its power sometime around the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Early development, Genetics and Migrations
The Yoruba predate their literary origins by centuries, with the current population being descended from peoples inhabiting their current homeland for millennia.
The earliest human remains discovered in Nigeria, dated from around 10000-9000 BCE, were excavated from the Iwo Eleru rock shelter in Ondo state, North-Eastern Yoruba land.
Genetic testing indicates that this individual was a member of the E1b1a1 subclade of the E-M2 haplo-group, and possessed a degree of Western Eurasian ancestry, likely from North African admixture acquired during the Green Saharan period, qualities shared with most of the contemporary Yoruba population.
This would suggest a common origin with the various hunter-gatherer groups migrating from the northern savannah grasslands, fleeing the rapid desertification of the Sahara, and into the ancient Nigerian region, around the Middle Niger and the Niger-Benue confluence in the same time frame.
Between 4000 and 1000 BCE, a gradual transition to stone tools and weapons called microliths facilitated the wide-spread adoption of agriculture and animal husbandry, the development of rudimentary pottery, and consequentially more sedentary lifestyles, ultimately resulting in the establishment of the first permanent settlements in the region, including Iwo Eleru itself.
Finally, from 0001-1000 AD, during which knowledge of iron-smelting techniques was being independently discovered and disseminated throughout the continent, via the Bantu migrations, many of these settlements would undergo a long process of cultural, artistic, and linguistic development, and economic and political consolidation, establishing the first, highly decentralized states in the region.
While most would hardly develop past simple village clusters, others such as the Nok culture, would develop large towns and urban confederations via intricate trade networks and common cultural, artistic, and perhaps even religious ties.
The Nok artistic culture would serve as the foundation for the various unique but similar traditions of the ancient Nigerian region, including the Igbo Ukwu, the Hausa city states, and of course, the ancient Yoruba kingdom of Ife
The rise and fall of Ife
One of these urban settlements, the region surrounding the city state of Ilรฉ-Ifแบนฬ had already been heavily populated as early as the 7th century CE, but had only risen to prominence by the 12th century CE. It was one of the earliest highly centralized states in the region, and would go on to define the political, religious, and artistic traditions of the various polities which would claim its descent.
During the height of its wealth, power, and influence, from the 12th to 15th centuries CE, its influence would extend as far west as what is now southern Togo, and as far east as the river Niger. This period of population growth and rapid urbanization would also coincide with the apex of its artistic traditions, and is subsequently also referred to by historians as the Pavement era, a reference to the potsherd mosaics painstakingly laid in a herringbone pattern around this period, atypical of the floors and pathways of the cityโs ancient ruins
Unique products of the Cityโs industry, such as pieces of its renowned translucent blue-green glass, โSฬฉeฬฉgi,โ have been discovered in locations as far away as Ghana, Mali, and Mauritania, evidence of a level and scope of commercial influence far larger than its physical size would suggest. This economic and cultural dominance was facilitated by the stability of its centralized political institutions, which attracted numerous artisans and craftsmen from surrounding regions to ply their trades.
This concentration of skilled practitioners would result in the development of numerous advanced techniques to produce high-quality goods and ornamentation, chief among which would be the โcire per due,โ or lost wax casting method of bronze casting. These techniques were crucial in the production of such enduring master pieces as the Obalufon bronze head, currently on display in the African section of the British Museum.
This prosperity and dominance would however, not last, as its power and influence would already begin to wane in favor of the rapidly rising kingdom of แปฬyแปฬ by the 13th century. Although Ifแบนฬ had declined to a shadow of its former self by the end of the 1400s, it would regardless continue to serve as the religious capital of the wider Yoruba cultural sphere to the modern era, and its place and importance within the Yoruba political and religious order would not be dissimilar to that of the Vatican in medieval Europe, or the Pythia, Oracle of Delphi in classical Greece.
The Yoruba kingdoms
In the following centuries, numerous Yoruba polities would trace their origin to the ancestral capital at Ilรฉ-Ifแบนฬ, including the non-Yoruba Kingdom of Benin. Popular legend holds that the sons and Grandsons of Odรนduwร would migrate from their hometown with armies in tow, subjugating local populations wherever they settled, and establishing tributary kingdoms centered on well-fortified towns.
The Reverend Samuel Johnson gives the names of these first kings and Kingdoms. To the west of Ife travelled the Alaketu of Ketu, the Onisabe of Sabe, and the Olupopo of Popo. To the East, the Olowu of Owu, the Ila of Orangun, and to the north, perhaps most famously, travelled the first Alaafin of Oyo, one Oranyan of Ife.
Of course, with future episodes, the origin and fate of these monarchs and settlements will be explored in far more depth and detail.
By the 1400s CE, as the Kingdom of Ifแบนฬ continued to decline, the kingdom of แปฬyแปฬ, one of its successor states, would begin to surpass it in military, economic and even political relevance, achieving considerable size and influence by the end of the 14th century.
It would, however, suffer an 80 year-long period of decline and stagnation in the early 16th century, during which its traditional capital would even be sacked and burnt by the legendary Nupe Warlord Tsoede, and its royalty and nobility forced to rule in exile from a newly constructed capital.
Following this century of humiliation, the kingdom would institute a series of political, economic, and military reforms, and reorganize under a revolutionary new monarch, the legendary female Alaafin, Orompoto, and adopt a decidedly more militant and expansionist attitude to foreign policy, beginning with the subjugation of their historic rivals, the Nupe, whom they referred to as the Tapas, over a series of punitive campaigns.
Between the 17th and 18th centuries, this cavalry based polity would experience a meteoric rise, forging a considerable empire on horse-back, which would grow to encompass nearly all of Yoruba land, and bring it into conflict with several other ascendant polities at the time, most notably the Benin kingdom to the southeast, the Hausa city states and Nupe Kingdom to the north, and the ethnically Akan Ashanti empire to the west
However, by the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a series of constitutional and succession crises, coupled with increasing pressures from northern expansion into the territory, would plunge the empire into an extended period of decline, and eventually, disintegration, by the mid-19th century, culminating with the 1835 sack of Oyo Ile.
Following the instability caused by the civil wars which raged between the historic Yoruba polities in the wake of the collapse of central authority at แปฬyแปฬ, the nation would, at the turn of the 19th century, during the height of the European scramble for Africa, be consolidated into the southern protectorate of the Royal British Niger company.
In 1914, the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates would facilitate the establishment of the colony and protectorate of Nigeria, and following the nationalist movement initiated by Herbert Macaulay in the 1920s and 30s, the country would gain its independence by the 1st of October 1960.
Sources
What are they like?
Demographics and culture
Language
FALOLA, TOYIN; AKINYEMI, AKINTUNDE (2016-06-20), Encyclopedia of the Yoruba. Indiana University Press, page 194, ISBN 9780253021564
Valdรฉs, Vanessa K. (2015-03-04). "Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism by Tracey E. Hucks (review)". Callaloo. 38 (1): 234โ237. doi:10.1353/cal.2015.0025. ISSN 1080-6512. S2CID 143058809.
Where do they come from?
Etymology and Nomenclature
Miโrฤj al-แนขuโลซd (Historiographical essay), 1614, Ahmed Baba (translated by John Hunwick and Fatima Harrak)
Abeokuta and the Cameroon Mountains, c.1863, Richard F. Burton
Early development, Genetics and Migrations
B. Martรญnez, M. Nguidi, L. Catelli, C. Vullo, V.O. Okolie, S.O. Keshinro, E.F. Carvalho, L. Gusmรฃo, F. Simรฃo, Mitochondrial genetic profile of the Yoruba population from Nigeria, Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series, Volume 7, Issue 1, 2019, Pages 807-809, ISSN 1875-1768, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2019.10.185. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875176819301489)
The History of Nigeria
A History of the Yoruba people
Tribal divisions and Geography of the land/ The Yoruba kingdoms
The Yoruba from Prehistory to the Present
The History of Nigeria
A History of the Yoruba people